Help and FAQs

General questions

What are your cards made from?

They’re made from 100% crisp white plastic. Some of our competitors use a compressed cardboard core to reduce cost, we don’t and never will. Our cards are as durable as the credit or debit card in your wallet or purse.

We also produce eco-friendly cards, they look identical to our standard cards and cost a little more but biodegrade in 9 months – 5 years, you’ll find more information here.

What size and thickness are your cards?

They’re 86 x 54mm (or 85.6 x 54mm to be precise) and 760 micron thick, just like your credit card and with the same rounded corners.

Does double sided printing cost more?

No it doesn’t, whether we print on one side or both the price is the same. Why not take advantage of this and create a stunning card design.

Does printing in one or two colours cost less?

No it doesn’t, we print in CMYK / full colour so the number of ink colours always costs the same.

I’ve seen cards with a matt laminate, are these more expensive?

All our cards are supplied with a gloss laminate as standard. Matt laminate is also available at no extra cost – just let us know which you prefer. If your cards have large areas of dark colour, say black or dark blue, we recommend a matt laminate, they look great.

Why do you print cards for me to approve?

We’re often asked why we don’t just send a proof by email. There are a number of reasons, here are the most important ones-

The technology used to present colours on a screen is different to that used in printing, this results in slight but noticeable differences in how colours appear. This applies no matter what is printed and no matter which company is carrying out the printing.

Even monitors/tablets of the same type/model as one another will have had their colour settings altered over time, it is rare that users calibrate their devices.

Your graphic designer is likely to calibrate their device but if you don’t then the colours on your device will look slightly different to those on theirs.

Different ink colours used together may look ok on a screen. However, small white text (for example) on a yellow background when printed on a plastic card or anything else for that matter may not stand out as well as you intended.

If you’re not entirely happy with the cards we print for you to approve you can always send revised artwork and we’ll print more, if we simply send you a proof by email you won’t know how your cards will look until your order is delivered.

What are your minimum order quantities?

For plastic cards it’s just 250 or 500 plastic key tags.

If you’d like less the price is the same and we’ll always print some for you to approve first no matter what the quantity.

How is data stored on a plastic card with a magnetic stripe or barcode?

Simply put, it isn’t. All that is stored on a magnetic stripe or barcode is an account number. Swiping or scanning the card “unlocks” a particular account on the computer system, all account information is stored on the computer system, not the card. Please contact your software or epos supplier for more information.

Can you personalise plastic cards for me?

No problem, our minimum order of just 250 cards still applies, all we’ll need from you is data in an Excel ® file.

We can personalise in any colour (including white) and we guarantee the personalised data will never wear off.

If you need smaller quantities, can’t wait 7 days for delivery or want photo ID cards we recommend we supply you with at least 250 printed plastic cards which you can use along with a desktop plastic card printer, you’ll find more information here.

Do you offer trade prices?

Yes we do, once we’ve been dealing with you for 6 months we’ll review your account with a view to offering you trade prices.

Plastic Card Extras

Where do I find information about extras like barcodes

Just give us a call on 0115 941 4789 any we’ll talk you through barcodes, magnetic stripe and anything else you’d like to know in non jargon terms.

Artwork Questions

In what format do you need artwork files supplying?

We’ve produced detailed artwork guidelines that are easily understood by your graphic designer, you can download them here.

Producing high quality artwork is a skill requiring experience and essential to producing a high quality printed card. If you don’t already work with a graphic designer we can produce the artwork for your cards, the cost is £60. All we need is a comprehensive mock up showing what you require along with any logos and images in high resolution files (300 dpi). Low resolution files (72 dpi) are typically used on websites and are not suitable for printing to a commercial standard.

Do you have a template for a plastic card?

It takes a graphic designer less than a minute to create a card template, we no longer supply them as we’ve found different designers have their own preferences when creating artwork.

We do have templates for all the complex shaped things we supply for use with plastic cards, for example wallets and hangers, just let us know which you need.

Delivery Times

How long will it take to produce my order?

All delivery times are based on “working days” our working days are Monday to Friday and exclude public holidays.

If we’ve not printed your cards before we will print some plastic cards for you to approve first, complete with any extras, we will send these to you in 4 days. Once we’ve received your approval we will deliver your order 7 days later

So if you order on a Wednesday we would send these by first class post on Monday. If you approve your proofs the next day you would receive your order the following Thursday.

If we’ve printed your cards before we will deliver your order 7 days later. So if you order on a Wednesday you would receive your order the following Friday.

Artwork, orders, payments and proof approvals received after 4pm are processed the next working day.

If you really can’t wait then what you need is our Express Service which is even quicker, call us on 0115 941 4789 for the quickest response.

How Do I Order

I'm ready to order, what do I do?

Just send your artwork to us at help@harrybugg.co.uk. We’ll send an invoice to you by email, you can pay this by credit/debit card over the ‘phone or by BACS or cheque.

Once we’ve received your payment we’ll then produce some actual plastic cards, complete with any extras and send them to you 4 days later to approve. Your order will be delivered 7 days after approval.

If we’ve printed your cards before then we’ll deliver your order 7 days from receipt of your payment.

Payment

How can I pay?

We accept all major credit and debit cards (except American Express), we also accept payment by BACS or by cheque.

There are no additional charges for payment by card.

We do not keep a record of your card details, we take the issue of data security very seriously.